Black Sabbath to tour in 2014 and play Hollywood Bowl April 26

Black Sabbath, seen in concert at the L.A. Sports Arena in September, announced Thursday that it will tour again in 2014, and play the Hollywood Bowl in April.

Black Sabbath, seen in concert at the L.A. Sports Arena in September, announced Thursday that it will tour again in 2014, and play the Hollywood Bowl in April. (Michael Robinson Chavez / Los Angeles Times)

Mikael Wood

Black Sabbath will play a dozen shows in North America next year, including a late-April stop at the Hollywood Bowl.

The veteran heavy-metal band announced the trek Thursday in a statement that described the 12 dates -- which kick off March 31 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, N.Y., and wrap April 26 at the Bowl -- as some of the final shows of the outfit's 2013-14 world tour in support of this year's "13" album.

Released in June, "13" is Black Sabbath's first record with Ozzy Osbourne on lead vocals since "Never Say Die!" in 1978. It also earned the hugely influential group its first No. 1 album in the United States in a career that stretches back to the late 1960s, when Osbourne formed Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England, with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.

Though Ward signed on for the band's current reunion when it was announced in 2011, the drummer quit last year after a series of contract disputes. Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine played drums on "13," which was produced by Rick Rubin.

Reviewing Black Sabbath's Sept. 3 concert at the L.A. Sports Arena, Times pop music critic Randall Roberts wrote that Osbourne and his mates "offered distorted rock music as simple yet as inarguably useful as your basic table or chair."

Following the newly announced North American shows, Black Sabbath is scheduled to play a handful of European dates next June.